Benjamin Harrison

BREAKING DOWN THE WALL: LEGACY OF MIKHAIL GORBACHEV VIA

GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA
Senior Division
Individual Website

I have always been interested in the Soviet Union; its been one of my favorite
areas of study. I loved to learn about how a group of people could come together
in a Union and live under a dictatorship and have it last so long considering the
conditions. For me, I think the leader that had the largest impact of the USSR
was Mikhail Gorbachev as a result of the reforms that he tried to make to the
Soviet Union in order to make it more Westernized and Socialist and move out of
Communism. Although, in the end, these reforms might have meant the end of
the Soviet Union because these citizens are finally given such new freedoms that
they didnt know what to do with it so they went to the extremes and blamed the
government for everything that wasnt perfect in their lives. Because of all the
revolts being lead by the people of the USSR, the government was forced to shut
down and dissolve the USSR because of these new freedoms. I was able to talk
with some experts on the Soviet Union about their views on Gorbachev and how
his reforms worked. The differing views of all these professionals amazed me,
and seeing how skewed the results were fascinated me even more and
encouraged me even farther in the direction of researching this intriguing man.
The research that I conducted lead me to my own opinions of to what extent
Gorbachevs reforms were successful, so when I discussed this with more
experts I was able to finally debate my own ideas and refute the ideas and have a
professional talk with these experts.
After performing this research and doing plenty of interviews, I decided to
do a website because I feel like its the best way to organize my ideas and
present them in a proper manner. I am able to present my own ideas originally
and have videos, quotes, and pictures that I can use to back up my reasoning.
The presentation of the website as a whole helps my ideas flow and keep them
all together and focused on a specific topic because of the multi-media platform.
As my header picture, I wanted to incorporate the most important things into one
picture: a picture of Gorbachev, his reforms, and the USSR flag. After I completed
my thesis and my headings, I tried to find the best videos and pictures that would
support all of my pages and headings so it could all make sense and flow as
easily as possible for someone who hasnt done as much research to understand
it clearly. I used a bounty of primary and secondary sources that help to enrich
the ideas of Gorbachev and further my reasons for the answer to my thesis.
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